Garden Fence - Whose Responsibility?

A fence panel in our garden had broken and needs replacing. I am happy to go 50:50 with my neighbour on the repair but I think they would like to establish if either of us has responsibility for the fence.


I still have the documentation from when we bought the house but the title plan does not indicate who is responsible for the fence. Is there anywhere else I can look to find out if one of us has responsibility for the fence?
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  • cattie
    cattie Posts: 8,841
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    If you still have the property info form from the solicitor when you were buying the house, this usually has a section where the vendor is asked who assumes responsibilty for each of the fences surrounding the property.

    Sometimes the questions are answered as unknown though, so are not always an indication of which side of the fence is who's responsibilty.
    The bigger the bargain, the better I feel.

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  • Poppy9
    Poppy9 Posts: 18,833
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    Who's land are the fence posts on as this usually indicates who the fence belong to.

    i.e in my back garden I have a wall for about 10 feet and then concrete posts and wire fence. This was erected at the same time as the houses and are indicated on our deeds as H which means they are party walls/fences and we are both equally responsible. On our side of the wire fence we have fence posts and a wooden fence. This means this is our fence and we are solely responsible for it. It does not mean we have to replace if it breaks as it is solely on our land.

    Look on your deeds. If you have a T mark on boundaries whoever has the T is the boundary owner.
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  • phead
    phead Posts: 214 Forumite
    I still have the documentation from when we bought the house but the title plan does not indicate who is responsible for the fence. Is there anywhere else I can look to find out if one of us has responsibility for the fence?

    Do you have the title register (the text bit) to go with the title plan? Its often in the text if its not on the plan.
  • The fence posts are bang in the middle between our properties. Also, the fence posts are between the fence panels and not to one side. The deeds do not show any marking to indicate ownership of the fence, there is only a red line outlining the boundary. The title register doesn't offer any info either.

    Also, in the answers the vendor gave to our solicitor they did not know who was responsible for the fences.

    I dont know if its relevant but the house in only 10 years old.
  • dieselhead
    dieselhead Posts: 599 Forumite
    I live in a flat but I know in my parents house each house is responsible for the fences to the right of the garden, I think there is a similar idea for the back fence but it is in the title deeds, it might be worth asking around the rest of the street to see if there is and precedent.
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  • dieselhead wrote: »
    I live in a flat but I know in my parents house each house is responsible for the fences to the right of the garden, I think there is a similar idea for the back fence but it is in the title deeds, it might be worth asking around the rest of the street to see if there is and precedent.

    Yes, there are some time arrangements like that but they are not the same everywhere. My other neighbour doesn't know either.
  • Poppy9
    Poppy9 Posts: 18,833
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    The fence posts are bang in the middle between our properties. Also, the fence posts are between the fence panels and not to one side. The deeds do not show any marking to indicate ownership of the fence, there is only a red line outlining the boundary. The title register doesn't offer any info either.

    Also, in the answers the vendor gave to our solicitor they did not know who was responsible for the fences.

    I dont know if its relevant but the house in only 10 years old.

    Have you asked your solicitor. Also worth asking if there is a clause that states a boundary fence of X height has to be maintained because if it doesn't and it's a shared responsibilty it will be difficult to force neighbour to share cost if they are not bothered about the fence.

    When we moved into our house our neighbours on the right told us we were responsible for boundaries between us and our neighbour on the left told us we were responsible for boundaries between us as they both had their own version of "you are responsible for boundaries to your left/right of your property". We asked our solicitor who told us they are all joint boundaries marked with Hs. We had to wait a while to drop it into conversations that we had checked and it's never been mentioned since :)
    :) ~Laugh and the world laughs with you, weep and you weep alone.~:)
  • frogglet
    frogglet Posts: 767
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    If the house is only 10 years old, isn't there a deed of covenent, with all the various things that are allowed and not allowed? Our house is 15 years old and we got a 6 page document stating everything from the colour we could paint the house to fencing and trees and satellite dish placement.
    I am not sure how you get a replacement one if there is one but you weren't given a copy or how you find out if there is one.
    We have lived in our house from new, so it was with all the details sent to the soliciter by the builders.
  • daveyjp
    daveyjp Posts: 12,469
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    Its a fence panel - cost not a lot - just talk to your neighbour and get it changed. Life's too short to spend months trying to find who is responsible.
  • daveyjp wrote: »
    Its a fence panel - cost not a lot - just talk to your neighbour and get it changed. Life's too short to spend months trying to find who is responsible.

    Its actually a bit more than that. The fence post has snapped and its going to be a fair bit of work to dig it out and install a new one. By the looks of it the rest of the fence posts could go quite soon too so I would like to get this sorted out.

    As I said, I am happy to go 50:50 but my neighbour is not.
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